Enable Azure VM extensions using the Azure CLI

Article
09/19/2024

This article shows you how to deploy, upgrade, update, and uninstall VM extensions, supported by Azure Arc-enabled servers, to a Linux or Windows hybrid machine using the Azure CLI.

Note

Azure Arc-enabled servers does not support deploying and managing VM extensions to Azure virtual machines. For Azure VMs, see the following VM extension overview article.

Prerequisites

Use the Bash environment in Azure Cloud Shell. For more information, see Quickstart for Bash in Azure Cloud Shell.
If you prefer to run CLI reference commands locally, install the Azure CLI. If you're running on Windows or macOS, consider running Azure CLI in a Docker container. For more information, see How to run the Azure CLI in a Docker container.
- If you're using a local installation, sign in to the Azure CLI by using the az login command. To finish the authentication process, follow the steps displayed in your terminal. For other sign-in options, see Sign in with the Azure CLI.
- When you're prompted, install the Azure CLI extension on first use. For more information about extensions, see Use extensions with the Azure CLI.
- Run az version to find the version and dependent libraries that are installed. To upgrade to the latest version, run az upgrade.

Install the Azure CLI extension

The ConnectedMachine commands aren't shipped as part of the Azure CLI. Before using the Azure CLI to connect to Azure and manage VM extensions on your hybrid server managed by Azure Arc-enabled servers, you need to load the ConnectedMachine extension. These management operations can be performed from your workstation, you don't need to run them on the Azure Arc-enabled server.

Run the following command to get it:

az extension add --name connectedmachine

Enable extension

To enable a VM extension on your Azure Arc-enabled server, use az connectedmachine extension create with the --machine-name, --extension-name, --location, --type, settings, and --publisher parameters.

The following example enables the Log Analytics VM extension on an Azure Arc-enabled server:

az connectedmachine extension create --machine-name "myMachineName" --name "OmsAgentForLinux or MicrosoftMonitoringAgent" --location "regionName" --settings '{\"workspaceId\":\"myWorkspaceId\"}' --protected-settings '{\"workspaceKey\":\"myWorkspaceKey\"}' --resource-group "myResourceGroup" --type-handler-version "1.13" --type "OmsAgentForLinux or MicrosoftMonitoringAgent" --publisher "Microsoft.EnterpriseCloud.Monitoring"

The following example enables the Custom Script Extension on an Azure Arc-enabled server:

az connectedmachine extension create --machine-name "myMachineName" --name "CustomScriptExtension" --location "regionName" --type "CustomScriptExtension" --publisher "Microsoft.Compute" --settings "{\"commandToExecute\":\"powershell.exe -c \\\"Get-Process | Where-Object { $_.CPU -gt 10000 }\\\"\"}" --type-handler-version "1.10" --resource-group "myResourceGroup"

The following example enables the Key Vault VM extension on an Azure Arc-enabled server:

az connectedmachine extension create --resource-group "resourceGroupName" --machine-name "myMachineName" --location "regionName" --publisher "Microsoft.Azure.KeyVault" --type "KeyVaultForLinux or KeyVaultForWindows" --name "KeyVaultForLinux or KeyVaultForWindows" --settings '{"secretsManagementSettings": { "pollingIntervalInS": "60", "observedCertificates": ["observedCert1"] }, "authenticationSettings": { "msiEndpoint": "http://localhost:40342/metadata/identity" }}'

The following example enables the Microsoft Antimalware extension on an Azure Arc-enabled Windows server:

az connectedmachine extension create --resource-group "resourceGroupName" --machine-name "myMachineName" --location "regionName" --publisher "Microsoft.Azure.Security" --type "IaaSAntimalware" --name "IaaSAntimalware" --settings '"{\"AntimalwareEnabled\": \"true\"}"'

The following example enables the Datadog extension on an Azure Arc-enabled Windows server:

az connectedmachine extension create --resource-group "resourceGroupName" --machine-name "myMachineName" --location "regionName" --publisher "Datadog.Agent" --type "DatadogWindowsAgent" --settings '{"site": "us3.datadoghq.com"}' --protected-settings '{"api_key": "YourDatadogAPIKey" }'

List extensions installed

To get a list of the VM extensions on your Azure Arc-enabled server, use az connectedmachine extension list with the --machine-name and --resource-group parameters.

Example:

az connectedmachine extension list --machine-name "myMachineName" --resource-group "myResourceGroup"

By default, the output of Azure CLI commands is in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation). To change the default output to a list or table, for example, use az config set core.output=table. You can also add --output to any command for a one time change in output format.

The following example shows the partial JSON output from the az connectedmachine extension -list command:

[
  {
    "autoUpgradingMinorVersion": "false",
    "forceUpdateTag": null,
    "id": "/subscriptions/subscriptionId/resourceGroups/resourceGroupName/providers/Microsoft.HybridCompute/machines/SVR01/extensions/DependencyAgentWindows",
    "location": "regionName",
    "name": "DependencyAgentWindows",
    "namePropertiesInstanceViewName": "DependencyAgentWindows",

Update extension configuration

Some VM extensions require configuration settings in order to install them on the Arc-enabled server, like the Custom Script Extension and the Log Analytics agent VM extension. To upgrade the configuration of an extension, use az connectedmachine extension update.

The following example shows how to configure the Custom Script Extension:

az connectedmachine extension update --name "CustomScriptExtension" --type "CustomScriptExtension" --publisher "Microsoft.HybridCompute" --settings "{\"commandToExecute\":\"powershell.exe -c \\\"Get-Process | Where-Object { $_.CPU -lt 100 }\\\"\"}" --type-handler-version "1.10" --machine-name "myMachine" --resource-group "myResourceGroup"

Upgrade extensions

When a new version of a supported VM extension is released, you can upgrade it to that latest release. To upgrade a VM extension, use az connectedmachine upgrade-extension with the --machine-name, --resource-group, and --extension-targets parameters.

For the --extension-targets parameter, you need to specify the extension and the latest version available. To determine the latest version available for an extension, visit the Extensions page for the selected Arc-enabled server in the Azure portal or run az vm extension image list. You may specify multiple extensions in a single upgrade request by providing a comma-separated list of extensions, defined by their publisher and type (separated by a period) and the target version for each extension.

To upgrade the Log Analytics agent extension for Windows that has a newer version available, run the following command:

az connectedmachine upgrade-extension --machine-name "myMachineName" --resource-group "myResourceGroup" --extension-targets '{"Microsoft.EnterpriseCloud.Monitoring.MicrosoftMonitoringAgent":{"targetVersion":"1.0.18053.0"}}'

You can review the version of installed VM extensions at any time by running the command az connectedmachine extension list. The typeHandlerVersion property value represents the version of the extension.

Remove extensions

To remove an installed VM extension on your Azure Arc-enabled server, use az connectedmachine extension delete with the --extension-name, --machine-name, and --resource-group parameters.

For example, to remove the Log Analytics VM extension for Linux, run the following command:

az connectedmachine extension delete --machine-name "myMachineName" --name "OmsAgentForLinux" --resource-group "myResourceGroup"

Next steps

You can deploy, manage, and remove VM extensions using the Azure PowerShell, from the Azure portal, or Azure Resource Manager templates.
Troubleshooting information can be found in the Troubleshoot VM extensions guide.
Review the Azure CLI VM extension Overview article for more information about the commands.

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